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How do you hook up these speakers ?

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    How do you hook up these speakers ?

    Good day folks. Some of you probably know that over at this new shop of mine, the boss also owns a couple of clubs and venues and as such sometimes likes to "challenge" us with stuff other than strictly repairing stuff, though still related to electronics one way or another.

    Check this out: he brought in a couple of speakers from an outdoor venue of his which is closed during winter and asked us to give them a good scrub. Naturally we just had to try them out as well, which I DO know how to do - it's not rocket science, plus I watched countless tutorials on DJ equipment, wanting to become one myself (which may not be that unattainable with someone like Big Boss around if I play my cards right).

    Long story short: two EV X Line subwoofers in our shop need to be hooked up to Dynacord amps...seemed simple enough at first, but I hit a snag: when I got the cables for them, I was thrown off (too bad I didn't snap a picture of them). I'll attempt to explain: the amps use regular Speakon connectors like you'd expect, but the subs use a larger connector, similar to speakon but with 8 pins. From what I gather, these are called NL8FC connectors. I was expecting to see some sort of adapter cable, going from this larger connector to a single speakon connector to fit the amp....which it does, but there's not one, but THREE speakons at the other end, each with 2 wires going into them....ok, so WTH is this ? Which ones do I use ? The first diagram I threw together shows this cable is like a "squid" or "snake": the round things at the right are the 3 speakons and the one on the left is the NL8FC connector (not to scale and not an actual pinout, duuh).

    Adding to the confusion is the plate on the back of the sub:

    LF1: Pins 1 Paralleled
    LF2: Pins 2 Paralleled
    Pin 3 and 4 paralleled between connectors....stumped TBH

    I thought the cables were hacks someone patched together, but I think they're the actual EV cables that came with them. This is what I think it's happening: the two 18" drivers in these subs are wired separately (hence the word "paralleled"): one driver is wired to one set of pins (say, the teal pins, 1+ and 1-), the other driver to the red pins, 2+ and 2-, (there's no polarity mentioned anywhere, I just guessed). This would make sense, as it allows the single "squid" to carry signal for BOTH drivers without having to run an additional cable, hence the two speakons: they split the cable into two connectors at the amp end....what about the third speakon then (green) ? I think I figured it out as well: I imagine the green pair (3) (and possibly pair 4, orange, though that one is not wired and is taped off for some reason at the speakon end) just "jumps" from one connector to the other on the back to allow a second sub/mid range to run on the same squid cable, so the third speakon would plug into its own amp, then it bypasses the sub entirely and exits out the second connector via pairs 3 (and/or 4 depending on how you wire it)....damn....talk about confusing
    I also imagine the "1s" and "2s" are wired to the speakers from both connectors, so it doesn't matter where you plug the "input", as long as it drives pairs 1/2. This would mean however that you shouldn't plug BOTH cables into an amp at the other end because the two pairs could "collide" with each other (one should only be used as an "output"). It would also imply that plugging the amp into the 3s/4s at the speakon end would not power the sub at all, as those would go over to the other connector and not the speakers inside...again, this is just speculating - haven't taken that back plate off to inspect since I suspect it might have a gasket.

    So:
    The '1s' are the first speaker
    The '2s' are the second speaker
    The '3s' and the '4s' are bypasses I THINK...any ideas ? Cheers and sorry for the long text
    Attached Files
    Last edited by Dannyx; 12-05-2018, 12:56 PM.
    Wattevah...

    #2
    Re: How do you hook up these speakers ?

    This might help (page 4, to be exact):

    Khron's Cave - Electronics - Audio - Teardowns - Mods - Repairs - Projects - Music - Rants - Shenanigans

    Comment


      #3
      Re: How do you hook up these speakers ?

      Of course I went and checked on EV myself for a manual, but strangely enough there's no info in the download labeled "manual" (where you'd most expect it to be), but instead in the brochure you posted which I disregarded....
      I believe it's actually page 5 which makes more sense, towards the bottom, where it talks about the subwoofers and says pins 3 and 4 are not used, which confirms my initial hypothesis to a point, in that the two drivers are wired to pairs 1 and 2 respectively...not sure how it jumps over to the other connector. It could be pins 1 and 2 on the connectors are common, so the other connector can also act as an output as I said, except not on pairs 3/4 like I initially suspected....OR it might mean "no connection" as in "no connection to speakers", while still allowing a pass-through to the other plug nevertheless.
      Wattevah...

      Comment


        #4
        Re: How do you hook up these speakers ?

        look like maybe daisy chaining facility .
        have used the big plugs before for multiple amps for 3 or 4 way p.a systems .

        Comment


          #5
          Re: How do you hook up these speakers ?

          Confirmed today: knocked out one of the drivers and this piece of paper was conveniently stapled to the insulation. I was spot-on: pairs 3 and 4 are just for bypass and they use the "snakes" exactly as I predicted: they pass the audio through the sub over to the "satellites" via pins 3 (or 4, not sure, since there's only 3 speakons, not 4 as you'd expect - one pair of wires is taped off at the speakon "breakout" end).

          There's still one issue though, which I discovered today: the "satellites" use bi-amp connectors, meaning all 4 pins inside their speakon connectors are wired independently: pins 1 to LF and pins 2 to HF. The current setup would mean that only one of these elements would work. Think about it: the NL8FC-to-speakon cable which runs from the sub to the satellite would need to have pair 3 (or 4 whichever is wired) wired to BOTH pairs in the speakon connector, otherwise either the LF or HF driver will simply have no signal going through...it's confusing, I know, but it takes some tinkering to figure it out and once you do it's easy. The chap "in charge" of these clearly hasn't done any research and just plugged sh!t in randomly until SOME sound came out, since he would've figured out that the numbers don't match: 8 pins break out to only 3 speakon connectors when it should be 4 speakons.

          The way I would've done it is add a connector to the last set of wires and go like this "map" below:

          Amp 1 CH A: via pins 1 of first cable (LF 1 inside SUB 1)
          Amp 1 CH B: via pins 1 of second cable (LF 1 inside SUB 2)

          Amp 2 CH A: via pins 2 of first cable (LF 2 inside SUB 1)
          Amp 2 CH B: via pins 2 of second cable (LF 2 inside SUB 2)

          This is so that stereo works between L/R subs, not between the drivers themselves inside the same SUB cabinet.

          Then:

          Amp 3 CH A: via pins 3 of first cable (LF inside SAT 1)
          Amp 3 CH B: via pins 3 of second cable (LF inside SAT 2)

          Amp 4 CH A: via pins 4 of first cable (HF inside SAT 1)
          Amp 4 CH B: via pins 4 of second cable (HF inside SAT 2)

          True, this WOULD add a fourth amp into the mix, which is lacking ATM and would also required a NL8FC cable wired "bi-amp" mode from pins 3 to pins 1 of the speakon end and from pins 4 to pins 2 of the Speakon end...
          They're also using a crossover unit inside the amp rack, which would make it even more imperative to know how the hell you're supposed to wire CORRECTLY by THINKING !

          Sorry about my rants...I'm actually pretty psyched about all this pro-audio stuff
          Attached Files
          Wattevah...

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